Wednesday, July 31, 2013

May 29, 1934 - July 14, 2013 Stanley Margolis passed away
at UCLA Medical on Sunday July, 14. Stanley was born and raised in London,
England and was a gifted athlete. He was a member of the All-England Schoolboys
cricket team and well-respected boxer. Known as a financial wiz kid he became
an accountant and entrepreneur. He and partners Tony Tenser and Laurie Marsh
formed British Tigon Films, producing many popular films including "Hannie
Caluder," staring Raquel Welch. Stanley produced "True Romance."
Stanley bred and raced greyhounds. His dog Black Jack Dealer was the 1986
Championship Winner at Naples-Fort Myers Dog Track 3-8 mile Derby. In 1976
Stanley moved with his family to Southern California. He founded FinMgt where
he managed the business affairs of well-known artists. His parents; Samuel and
Ivy; Sister, Frances, and brother-in law, Paul Swanson; and son Alex preceded
him in death. He is survived by wife Angela, daughter Rachel, son-in-law, David
and grandchildren, Cynthia and Christopher.

French actor and director Michel Lemoine died at his home
in Vinon, Centre, France on July 27, 2013. He was 90.

Lemoine made ​​his film debut in late 1943 and worked for
directors such as Sacha Guitry and Julien Duvivier. His physique gave him the
opportunity to compete for roles as a romantic leading man but also to explore
roles as mysterious and disturbing characters. Throughout the 1960s, he toured
extensively in Italy, in peplums, spaghetti westerns and in fantasy films. He
also worked for Jess Franco and José Bénazéraf. In the 1970s he was seen mainly
in erotic films.

As a director he mingled eroticism with drama and comedy
working with Janine Reynaud and his wife, along with his favorite performers,
Martine Azencot, Nathalie Zeiger and Marie-Hélène Kingdom.

He turned reluctantly towards making pornographic films
using his most often pseudonym Michel Leblanc directing Olinka Hardiman who he
made a star of X films (“Marilyn, mon amour”). In 1976, his film “Les Week-ends
maléfiques du Comte Zaroff” was prohibited in theaters by French censorship.

He left the acting profession in the 1990s, and made only
sporadic appearances.

Lemoine appeared in two Euro-westerns: “The Road to Fort
Alamo” (1964) starring Ken Clark and directed by Mario Bava and “Cemetery
Without Crosses” (1968) directed by and starring Robert Hossein.

A 2009 British production [Anti /Type Films, Short Night
Films (London)]

Producer: Laurence Campbell, Lyle Jackson, Ruth
Whittaker, Ben Cook

Director: Laurence Campbell

Story: Laurence Campbell

Screenplay: Laurence Campbell

Cinematography: Lyle Jackson [color]

Music: Fever Blank

Running time: 21 minutes

Cast:

Old Man - Stephen
Campbell

Young Man -Laurence Campbell

Deep into the rugged landscape two men fight for
survival. One gets the upper hand and the journey begins. The earth and the
soul become one as the fever takes hold. Hunted or feared, paranoia and
confusion chase both men on their trip through the feral and ungoverned lands.The reality of death in times of no hope is a
brutal realisation for the men and as young becomes old, and another cycle is
complete, the old must find their new place.

Laura Betti was born Laura
Trombetti in Casalecchio di Reno, Emilia Romagna, Italy on May 1 1927. Her
childhood was spent in Bologna under the ominous shadow of Mussolini's Fascist
repression. But when the Second World War ended and freedom was finally
restored in Italy, Laura Trombetti first rebelled by shortening her name to
Betti. Soon she was gathering a sulphurous reputation in the new hot spots of
Rome's café society as it reveled once more in social and artistic freedom.

This blonde and flamboyant actress started her
career as a jazz singer. Betti made her film debut in Federico Fellini's “La
Dolce Vita” (1960). In 1963, she became a close friend of the poet and movie
director Pier Paolo Pasolini, for whom she made a documentary after his death.
Under Pasolini's direction she proved a wonderful talent, in many films like “La
ricotta” (1963) and “Teorema” (1968). In 1976, she portrayed a cruel and erotic-maniacal
fascist in “1900”, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. She remained the keeper of
Pasolini’s flame to the end, and even wrote a novel about him, Teta veleta (1979). Her readings kept
his memory alive, and in 2001 she issued a documentary about him, presented at
the Venice Film Festival. She oversaw the issue of restored versions of all his
films, and on April 24, 2004, ceremoniously presented all of Pasolini's archives
to Bologna's film library.

Since the 1960s, she had
dedicated much of her time to literature and politics. She became the muse for
a number of leading political and literary figures in Italy and came to
personify the revolutionary and Marxist era of 1970s Italy.

Laura appeared in three
Euro-westerns: “Companeros”, “A Man Called Sledge” (both 1970) and “Sonny and
Jed” (1972). Laura also appeared as herself in the western documentary
“Arrivano i vostro” (1984).

Later in her career she
became a TV and voice actress before dying in Rome, Italy on July 31, 2004.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Carel Struycken was born on July 30, 1948 in the Hague,
The Netherlands. He is the brother of actor Peter Struycken. When he was four
years old his family moved to Curacao, an island in the Caribbean. At age sixteen,
he returned to his country, where he finished high school. He graduated from
the directing program at the film school in Amsterdam, following which he did a
year at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

After school, he collaborated on a number of projects of
writer/director Rene Daalder. He was "discovered" as an actor at the
corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles by a lady who had abandoned her car
in the middle of the street, calling after him, "We need you for a movie!".
The movie was “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1978). The turning point
in his acting career however was “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor” (1985) (TV), a
George Lucas film. In addition to cinema, he has also appeared on TV, notably
as the recurring character, valet Mr. Homn, on "Star Trek: The Next
Generation" (1987).

Stuycken has appeared in two Euro-westerns: “Oblivion”
(1993) and “Backlash: Oblivion 2” (1994) playing Mr. Gaunt in both.

Carel has also helped in hardware and software
development of virtual reality systems.

Born Edward Byrne Breitenberger in New York City on July
30, 1933, Edd Byrnes shared an impoverished and unhappy childhood with his
brother Vincent and sister Jo-Ann. Their mother worked hard at various jobs to
keep the family together because her alcoholic husband was often absent from
the scene. When Edd was 13 his father was found dead in a basement. Edd then
dropped his last name in favor of "Byrnes", based on the name of his
maternal grandfather, a New York City fireman. Edd found escape from family
problems at the movies and at the gym, where he developed an athletic body. At
age 17 he was approached by a man who offered to take free "physique"
photos of him. According to Edd's 1996 autobiography, "Kookie No
More", this led to a few years of "hustling" older, well-to-do
men, despite the fact that Edd was heterosexual. One of these men acted as
Edd's mentor, introducing him to fashion and culture and encouraging his hopes
for an acting career.

After doing some summer-stock work and a few bit parts on
TV, Edd drove to California in 1955, arriving in Los Angeles on the day James
Dean died in a car crash. He managed to get a few minor parts in films and then
won a role in a new TV series called ‘77 Sunset Strip’ (1958), which premiered
in September of 1958. Edd, played a hip-talking parking-lot attendant named
"Kookie". Viewers started quoting his dialog, ("Baby, you're the
ginchiest!"), and young males imitated the way he wielded his ever-present
comb. His fan mail soon reached an astonishing 15,000 letters a week and his
single with Connie Stevens, "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb",
became a top-5 hit. Edd chafed, however, at the restrictions in his Warner
Brothers contract, which forced him to turn down roles in “Ocean's Eleven”
(1960), “North to Alaska” (1960) and “Rio Bravo” (1959). He walked off the ‘77
Sunset Strip’ set and in the ensuing months began to drink heavily and visit a
psychiatrist, who administered drugs to him. His contract dispute was
eventually settled; though not much to his advantage, and when he returned to
‘77 Sunset Strip’ his role was upgraded from "sidekick" to
"partner" and he wore a suit and tie. Audience reaction was not good,
ratings dropped, and the show was canceled. The hip-talking, hair-combing image
clung to him, however, and Edd felt he lost the lead in “PT 109” (1963) because
President John F. Kennedy didn't want to be played by "Kookie." A few
more movies and TV appearances followed, but his career had passed its peak
before he turned 30.

Edd went to Europe in the mid-1960s and made a few films
including three Euro-westerns: “Any Gun Can Play”, “Payment in Blood” and
“Professionals for a Massacre” all in 1967.

In 1962 he married long-time girlfriend Asa Maynor. Their
son, Logan, was born on September 13, 1965. Edd and Asa's marriage ended in
divorce in 1971. He never remarried, and remains proud of his son who is a FOX
news anchor in Connecticut since 2008. Edd has come to terms with his role as
television's first teen idol and released an autobiography in 1996 entitled KookieNo More.

John Christopher Howland was born on July 30, 1928 in
London, England. He is a British radio and TV presenter. For most of his career
he worked in Germany, where he started a few years after World War II at BFBS.
He became a popular disk jockey and presenter also on German networks. He also
was a prolific Schlager-singer and starred in over 50 films and television
appearances.

In 1948 he started working for the British Forces Broadcasting
Service in Germany. The British programs were an insider tip for German youths
who would rather listen to British music than to the comparatively slow
contemporary German pop music. So his popularity subsequently soon exceeded his
actual target audience. On the other hand Chris Howland also got acquainted
with the German language. In 1952, when he already spoke German fluently, he
was hired by a German broadcaster. Because of him British music prevails on
German radio up to now. Still, when he debuted six years later as a singer, he
did it in Germany and had two hits. But in 1959 he stopped doing radio shows
and returned to Britain.

On British TV Chris Howland had a show called ‘Peoples
and Places’ but he was not as popular as in Germany where the audiences loved
his British accent. So after two years he returned to Germany and continued his
career. Here he did a show called ‘Studio B’ which featured pop stars in a new
way that included a lot of humor. The show was broadcast more than sixty times.
Chris Howland's next coup was a version of Candid Camera for German TV.

Since 1954 Chris Howland has acted in more than twenty
films, including six European Karl May films including three westerns: “Apache
Gold” (1963) as Lord Jefferson Tuff Tuff, “Legacy of the Incas” (1965) as Don
Parmesan and “Blood at Sundown” (1966) as Doodle Kramer. In 2007 he appeared in
a parody on German Edgar Wallace feature films. He acted mainly in comedies
which were carried out in a style much like the British Carry On films.

Currently Chris Howland lives outside Cologne, Germany
and works again as a radio presenter and appears occasionally as an actor or
speaker on TV. In 2009 he published his memoirs Yes,Sir.

Will Flaherty, a gunslinger, returns to his hometown
after ten years in jail on charges of murder but finds a hostile welcome from both
the townspeople and the woman with whom he was engaged. He is consoled by Peggy,
the owner of the saloon, who has remained faithful to his memory and accepts
his version of events. Also arriving in town are a mean bunch of bandits who
rob a wagon load of gold. Having miscalculated the bandits, however, have come
to town prematurely and, to avoid any surprises at the appropriate time of the
robbery, start to imprison men and kill anyone who resists them. Will, who
among other things has discovered that a member of the gang is the man responsible
for his wrongful conviction. He in turn, is savagely beaten and imprisoned.
Freed by a friend, the gunman manages to get hold of the outlaw and takes him
to the neighboring town, while obtaining a clearing of his name. When the coach
the gang is waiting for finally arrives in the country, the bandits have the
unpleasant surprise to find it crowded with sheriff's deputies who kill them all
in a gunfight.

Enzo Castellari was born in Rome as Enzo Girolami on July
29, 1938. He is the son of director Marino Girolami [1914-1994] and the brother
of actor Enio Girolami [1935-2013]. Castellari was a pioneer in the early
Italian crime film genre, with “High Crime” (“La polizia incrimina la legge
assolve”, 1973) and “Big Racket” (“Il grande racket”, 1976). In the 1980s, his
career suffered somewhat from the drop of quality in Italian genre films, and
he found himself churning out financially successful B-movies like “The New
Barbarians” (“I nuovi barbari”, 1982) and “1990: The Bronx Warriors” (“1990: I
guerrieri del Bronx”, 1982). His film “Great White” (“L'ultimo squalo”, 1981)
was pulled from theaters following a successful lawsuit from Universal
Pictures, who accused the filmmakers of plagiarizing Steven Spielberg's “Jaws”
(1975). As Italian cinema declined, Castellari found work in television and as
an action scene consultant.

Enzo is mainly known for his westerns, war and crime
films, and has been called the "European Sam Peckinpah" and the
"Action Master". He also directed two very successful war films: “The
Inglorious Bastards” (“Quel maledetto treno blindato”, 1978) and “Eagles Over
London” (“La battaglia d'Inghilterra”, 1969), and made another shark film
called “The Shark Hunter” (“Il cacciatore di squali”, 1979).

Castellari had a cameoe as a German mortar squad
commander in his film “The Inglorious Bastards”; and Quentin Tarantino cast Castellari
in a cameo role of a German general in his film “Inglourious Basterds” (2009)
which was inspired by Castellari's 1978 film.

Enzo has been associated with 19 Euro-westerns as a
director, assistant director, screenwriter, film editor and actor. Starting
with “Magnificent Brutes of the West” (1964) as a film editor to “Shuna: The
Legend” (2012) as an actor. Some of his best known films were “Any Gun Can
Play” (1967) as director and screenwriter, “Kill Them All and Come Back Alone”
(1968) director and screenwriter, “Keoma” (1975) as director and screenwriter
and “Jonathan of the Bears” (1994) director and screenwriter.

Today we celebrate one of the greats of the Euro-western
Enzo Castellari on his 75th birthday.

Charles Allen Pendleton was born in Denver, Colorado on
July 29, 1923. He began working out in his Denver neighborhood to deal with his
tough companions. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army in the Battle
of the Bulge where he became a prisoner of war. He later obtained a degree at
the University of Southern California under the G.I. Bill and became a high
school teacher and guidance counselor in Los Angeles, where due to his physique
he was given classes containing many delinquent students.

Following a return enlistment in the Korean War he found
work as an extra in movies such as “Prisoner of War” (1954), “The Man with the
Golden Arm” (1955) and Cecil B. DeMille's “The Ten Commandments” (1956) where
he and his friend Joe Gold dragged Charlton Heston's Moses to the Pharaoh
played by Yul Brynner. In the late 1950s Mae West chose him to appear in her
nightclub act along with Mickey Hargitay and Dan Vadis.

He was one of the first American bodybuilder-actors who
migrated to Italy in the wake of Steve Reeves success after he sent a photo to
an Italian producer who signed him to a contract. Prior to going to Italy, he
saw a clairvoyant who asked him if he had ever been known by the name of Gordon
Mitchell. He replied no, but on arrival in Rome, Mitchell was given this new
name. He found work first in sword and sandal films such as “Spartacus” (1960),
“The Giant of Metropolis” (1961), “Treasure of the Petrified Forest” (1965),
then in Spaghetti Westerns such as “Three Graves for a Winchester” (1966) “Born
to Kill” (1967) and “Beyond the Law” (1968). Mitchell also appeared in
“Satyricon” (1969), directed by Federico Fellini.

Mitchell appeared in 33 Euro-westerns from “Three Graves
for a Winchester” in 1966 to “Porno-Erotic Western” in 1979

From the early 1970s onwards, his career started to
diversify into everything from horror “Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks” (1974),
war “Achtung! The Desert Tigers!” (1977), Sexploitation “Porno-Erotic Western”
(1979), French criminal comedy “The Umbrella Coup” (1980) and
post-apocalyptic films “Endgame – 1983”. Mitchell appeared in the bizarre 1982
Israeli adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's “She” as Hector.

While in Italy Mitchell obtained title to some land south
of Rome and there built Cave Studios where several Demofilo Fidani films were
made and which Mitchell made cameo appearances in. He later lost the land when
an Italian court decided foreigners could not own land in Italy.

Gordon returned to the United States in the late 1980s and
basically retired from acting running Gold’s Gym in Santa Monica and later
Marina Del Rey, California. Gordon made occasional film appearances until his
death from undisclosed causes in Marina Del Rey, California on September 20,
2003.

Today we remember one of the greats of Italian action
films and the Euro-western, Gordon Mitchell on what would have been his 90th
birthday.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

We continue our search for the film locations for “Death
Rides a Horse”. After Ryan saves Bill after his shooting of Burt Cavanaugh, he
leaves on a train to Lyndon City. Bill is left horseless once again but finds
Ryan has left his horse at the Holly Spring train station. Ryan departs the train
at the Lyndon City station.

This location is located in La Calahorra, Spain and has
been used in many Spaghetti westerns such as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
and “Once Upon a Time in the West”.

Nora Matilde-Rosa Orlandi was born on July 28, 1933 in
Voghera, Lombardy, Italy. The daughter of opera singer Fanny Campos, Nora began
singing at a young age and learning to play the piano. Nora got her start in
film composing in 1953, when she composed the score for “Non Vogliamo Morire”.
She has since been responsible for over 30 film scores, primarily for Spaghetti
westerns and giallo films. Orlandi has also been responsible for incidental
music for dozens of radio advertising spots and television shows. She often
works with collaborators including, Alessandro Alessandroni, Paolo Ormi and
Robert Poitevin. Nora founded the singing groups ‘Choir i 2 + 2 di Nora
Orlandi’ [1952-1963], ‘Choir i 4 + 4 di Nora Orlandi’ [1964-1983].

Orlandi has scored nine Euro-westerns from “Heroes of the
West” (1963) to “On the Third Day Arrived the Crow” (1972). She’s probably best
remembered for her scores for “Johnny Yuma” (1966) starring Mark Damon and
“$10,000 Blood Money” starring Gianni Garko.

In a western town robberies and assaults are carried out
by a mysterious gang that is then blamed on innocent citizens, who are hanged.
Following one of these executions, Dan now an orphan accepts the invitation of
a charlatan who works out of a wagon, claiming to be a dentist, and he becomes
his co-worker. Dan returns many years later to the same town, and realizes that
the country has changed little: the robberies of furs and attacks on hunters
are still repeated. The young man, determined to avenge his father's death,
confronts and kills Murdock and Gorman, two members of the gang of outlaws but
cannot find out the spy, who by means of carrier pigeons, alerts the gang
leaders of the departures of fur shipments. After another aggression and
confusion which generates a delay it is finally discovered that Torrence, a
peaceful and respected citizen, is the leader of the gang.

Emiliano Gora was born in Genoa, Liguria, Italy on July
27, 1913. As Claudio Gora, he was a particularly prolific actor making some 155
appearances in film and television over nearly 60 years from 1939 to 1997. In
the 1950s he dabbled with directing and screenwriting and directed the film “Three
Strangers in Rome” (1958) which was incidentally the first leading role by
Claudia Cardinale. He’s best remembered for his appearances in “Adua e le
compagne”, directed by Antonio Pietrangeli, “Tutti a casa” by Luigi Comencini
(both 1960) and Dino Risi's “A Difficult Life” (1961).

During his long and distinguished career Claudio appeared
in five Euro-westerns from “The Tramplers” in 1965 to “The Five Man Army” in
1969.

Claudio was married to actress Marina Berti [1924-2002]
(1944-1998). He is the father of actors Andrea Giordana [1946-], Carlo Giordana and actress Marina
Giordana. Gora died on March 13, 1998 in Rome, Italy.

Today we remember Claudio Gora on what would have been
his 100th birthday.

October 4th 2006; a hot day in Rome. I was lucky enough
to be invited to the offices of the well-known record label BEAT. The
temperatures were in the mid 80’s and I decided to take a taxi from Vatican
City to my destination which was just a little way from the impressive
architecture of the Pope’s residence. I was greeted warmly by Daniele De Gemini
who very soon introduced me to the esteemed and respected musician Franco De
Gemini. We went to Mr. De Gemini’s office and sat for a while just chatting.
After a while he began to relay to me stories about recording sessions and also
about concerts and specific film scores which he had worked on.

I was amazed to find out that he had played harmonica on
no less than 800 film scores. I remember thinking to myself, God I don’t think
I have or will ever see 800 movies in my lifetime. One particular story that
stuck in my mind was about Ennio Morricone. De Gemini had been asked to play
harmonica on a score by the maestro, but the score began with a very low bass
note. De Gemini explained it was virtually impossible for him to play this note
first thing in the morning at this session, so he told Morricone that the note
could not be played on the harmonica. The Maestro accepted his word and made
the necessary alterations to the score.

Some weeks later De Gemini found himself in the studio
again with Morricone and again the Maestro had begun his score with a very low
bass note. De Gemini reminded the maestro that this note could not be played on
the harmonica. Morricone looked at him and then produced a harmonica of his
own, played the note and told Franco “once you can get away with it but twice
NO…”.There was also a story that involved Leonard Bernstein, De Gemini played
harmonica on WEST SIDE STORY, he began to play at the recording session, and
Bernstein called a halt to the recording, calling the harmonica player over to
him mis-pronouncing his name as De Geminy, he asked him why he was playing in
the way he did. De Gemini shrugged his shoulders more or less saying this is
how I play. Bernstein produced a record of a harmonica player performing a
piece of music. He played it for De Gemini, saying this is what I want. De
Gemini said this person is a dog, I am the best, but the recording was of De
Gemini that Bernstein had had for some time; Franco De Gemini did say I knew
this but was not admitting it… Mr. De Gemini also told me he was the only
artist to be known for three notes; he looked at me and then hummed the opening
three notes from THE MAN WITH THE HARMONICA.Franco De Gemini was born in
Ferrara in the North of Italy, on the 10th September 1928.

John Mansell: Did you come from a family background that
was musical in any way?

Franco De Gemini:
No. Not at all, my Father was a policeman; my Mother was my Father’s wife.

John Mansell: What musical education did you receive?

Franco De Gemini:
My education was mainly self obtained; I taught myself and also developed my
own skills on the harmonica.

John Mansell: When did you begin to specialise in playing
the harmonica?

Franco De Gemini:
I was very young and used to play the harmonica everywhere, there was not much
to do in my free time after World War 2, OK lets say that there was not much
time to waste in that period also. Nevertheless my specialisation began in the
1950s it was at this time I played on my first soundtrack.

John Mansell: Do you play any other instrument at all?

Franco De Gemini:
No not at all, although I do play lots of different harmonicas.

John Mansell: Can you recall how many soundtracks that you
have performed on?

Franco De Gemini:
Yes, it is around 800 in all, maybe more, and that is just the soundtracks.

John Mansell: This year is the 40th anniversary of the
BEAT record label, what was the first release on your label?

Franco De Gemini:
The first release was not a soundtrack as such, but a compilation of film
music, IL SOGNI DELLA MUSICA LPF 001. I do think that maybe there were some
45rpm records released before this.

John Mansell: At one time you had a Manchester address on
your record releases. Was this your UK base?

Franco De Gemini:
No, it was just a distributor in Manchester.

John Mansell: Are there any items in the BEAT catalogue that
were issued on LP that have not yet received a compact disc release?

Franco De Gemini:
Yes, most certainly, dozens maybe even hundreds, it’s very difficult to say
just how many.

John Mansell: When you were working on ONCE UPON A TIME IN
THE WEST, did you have any idea just how successful the music and the movie
were going to be. And did you imagine that it would still be popular some 30
years plus on?

Franco De Gemini:
Difficult to say really, I surely did my best in my performance to obtain a
sound that was perfect for the movie.

John Mansell: Are there any movies that you have worked on
that you have particularly fond memories of?

Franco De Gemini:
ITALIANI BREVA GENTE which had a score by Armando Trovajoli, brings back many
fond memories for me; that and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST of course.

John Mansell: Your style of playing the harmonica is quite
unique. Were you influenced by the performances of others at all?

Franco De Gemini: No
I created that kind of sound alone; I consider myself my personal censor.

John Mansell: What would you say is BEAT’s best selling
soundtrack?

Franco De Gemini: All
of the soundtracks of Ennio Morricone sell very well, but also DEATH IN VENICE
was a best seller, and music by other composers such as De Masi, Trovajoli,
Ortolani, Piccioni and Piovani also do well.

John Mansell: Because of the company’s 40th anniversary,
will you be issuing any more special soundtracks this year?

Franco De Gemini: We
will release two compilations, this will be at the end of the year, one
dedicated to Joe D’Amato, and one to BEAT and of course we are preparing the
BEAT original book.

John Mansell: Have you ever performed in concert at all?

Franco De Gemini: Yes
many times and still today I perform.

John Mansell: What was Bruno Nicolai like to work with?

Franco De Gemini: He
was a great Maestro, I worked with him on many scores including ALLORA IL
TRENO.

John Mansell: You also worked on many of Francesco De Masi’s
score.

Franco De Gemini: I
played on around 80% of Francesco’s scores, I worked with him many times.

John Mansell: Is there a specific harmonica that you use?

Franco De Gemini:
Yes, a Honer Chromatic.

John Mansell: What would you say is the most difficult score
that you have had to work on?

Franco De Gemini: It
was an American Maestro’s work, there were 25 pages of dodecaphonic music, and
I finished it in two and a half hours.

Many thanks to Franco De Gemini and his son Daniele and for
their kind hospitality in Rome…

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Its back to the desert of Tabernas for the 2013 Almeria
Western Film Festival, the first European festival dedicated exclusively to the
western genre, that will, be held October 2, 3, 4 and 5, 2013 in the mythical
town of Tabernas, the reference point of western cinema worldwide.

The AWFF is an attractive festival, original and unique.
With a unique place in the national and European film industry. The genre as
well as 'classic among classics' and 'pure cinema', is continually revitalizing
and updating itself. It is a source of inspiration and ongoing review by
filmmakers for both young and emerging filmmaking.

The festival remains true to its mission to promote the
western genre through its film competition, and to promote filming in the
province and, above all, put on the map Almeria Tabernas through their natural
settings in which hundreds of movies were filmed of the mythical genre in the
1960s and 1970s.

The western is more than cowboy movies and landscapes of
the Far West. It is also a form of storytelling adapted to the XXI century, in
full force with cutting-edge urban backgrounds.

Two cowboys, searching for a hidden gold mine, hide out
from Mexican bandits in a convent. When the bandits arrive at the convent in
search of the cowboys, the nuns don’t take any crap and proceed to kick the
hell out of them.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Leontine Anna-Maria Friedl von Liebentreu was born on
July 24, 1943 in Vienna, Austria. The daughter of cinematographer Fritz von
Friedl [1901-1971], her brother is actor Fritz von Friedl II [1942- ] and she
is the aunt of actor Christoph Friedl [1976- ].

As Loni von Friedl, she has made over 90 film and
television appearances since her debut in “Der fidele Bauer” in 1951. She’s
probably best remembered for her appearance as Elfi Heidemann in “The Blue Max”
(1966). Loni appeared in only one Euro-western “The Moment to Kill” (1968) as
Regina Forrester.

Loni was married to actor Götz George from 1966-1976 with
whom she had a daughter Tanja. She later married actor Jürgen Schmidt
[1938–2004] from 1995 until his death in 2004.

Marcello Giombini was born in Rome, Italy on July 28,
1928. His father was a music professor who specialized in the oboe and who played
in several orchestras.

He was a composer of secular music and film music as well
as being interested in electronic music.

Giombini established himself especially in the 1960 and
1970s sixties as a satisfactory and creative maker in the renewal of the
religious music and also in the liturgical area. Marcello was also composer of
many soundtracks for movies, especially of the genre of Spaghetti westerns for
which he composed 15 scores from “The Relentless Four” in 1965 to “Dallas” in
1975. He’s probably best remembered for his scores to “Sabata” (1969) and
“Return of Sabata” (1971). Later he became a pioneer of electronic music in
Italy.

Marcello’s son, Pierluigi Giombini [1956- ], is known as
one of the most famous composer of "Italo Disco" in the 1980s.

Giombini died December 12, 2003 in Assissi, Italy.

Today we remember one of the Euro-westerns greatest
composers on what would have been his 85th birthday.

Guglielmo ‘Memmo’ Carotenuto was born on July, 24, 1908
in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was the brother of Mario Carotenuto and became a
well-known actor making his debut in the theater as a child in the Roman
dialect company which was part of his father Nello Carotenuto. Memmo entered
films in technical roles, playing first in small parts, starting in 1935 with
‘Vecchia guardaa” directed by Alessandro Blasetti. He continued to work even during World War II.

His first major role came with the interpretation of the
roommate's hospital protagonist in “Umberto D.” (1952), in which Vittorio De
Sica gives him a chance to showcase his dramatic talent that gets only better
in the coming years. In 1956, his portrayal of Quirino alongside actor Marcello
Mastroianni in “The Bigamist by Luciano Emmer, earned him the Silver Ribbon
award.

With a distinctive voice and big hearted charisma of the
typical Roman plebeian but sincere ways, from the 1950s he appears in over one
hundred films often with the masters of Italian comedy such as Totò, Alberto
Sordi, Peppino De Filippo, the aforementioned Vittorio De Sica and Gina
Lollobrigida.

Noteworthy is his part in Mario Monicelli's “Big Deal”
(1958), as the convict Cosimo, with Vittorio Gassman and in “Poveri ma belli”
(1956) and “Belle ma povere” (1957), both directed by Dino Risi.

In the seventies, his film appearances are less frequent
and are becoming less engaged, participating in the cast of films with Franco
Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia or with Enrico Montesano.

Carotenuto appeared in one Euro-western: “The Crazy
Bunch” (1974) as Letto. Memmo died in

Rome on December 23, 1980.

Today we remember Memmo Carotenuto on what would have
been his 105th birthday.

Timothy, a shy and well-mannered young man, after getting
his law degree, moves to the West where he has inherited a gold mine. But his
life soon becomes difficult, because the area is dominated by a rich Mexican,
eager to take possession of Timothy’s mine. Rodriguez relentlessly kills all
those who agree to work there. Luckily for Timothy, his faithful friend Corky,
reduced to despair by the oppression of the Mexican, manages to track down and
engage four of his brave comrades in arms: Black Fox, Abel, Brett and Burt. After
arriving at the Timothy’s ranch, they endeavor to make him as soon as possible
a perfect western hero. When Timothy proves to have learned the lessons he’s
been taught, hostilities open taking place at different times resulting in a large number of corpses. In the final showdown
with the Mexican, Timothy is forced to fight with only the help of his
girlfriend. But the heavy fire of the two allows the posse of friends to arrive
in time for the total elimination of the band. Timothy, a man of law and now a
happy groom, is elected sheriff of the now peaceful country.

Götz George was born in Berlin, Germany on July 23, 1938.
His father Heinrich George was a famous film and theater star, his mother Berta
Drews was a well-known character actress. George is named after his father's
favorite character, Götz von Berlichingen. His father was imprisoned by the
Soviets and starved in the Soviet concentration camp Sachsenhausen Speziallager
Nr. 7 Sachsenhausen. George grew up in Berlin with his elder brother Jan and
his mother. He went to school in Berlin-Lichterfelde and later attended the
Lyzeum Alpinum in Zuoz, Switzerland.

George made his stage debut in 1950, performing a role in
William Saroyan's Mein Herz ist im Hochland. From 1955 to 1958 he also studied
at the Berlin UFA-Nachwuchsstudio, though he received the crucial part of his
acting education between 1958 and 1963.

Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner
Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther in Dieter Forte's Martin
Luther und Thomas Münzer. His most important stage achievement, in his own
opinion, was the lead role in Büchner's Dantons Tod during the Salzburger
Festspiele in 1981. In 1986 and 1987 George, together with Eberhard Feik and
Helmut Stauss, stage-managed Gogol's Revisor. Performing in Anton Tschechow's
Platonov, George went on his hitherto last theater tour.

In 1953 he was able to get a small film role next to Romy
Schneider in “Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht”. In the same year he played,
as he would often do from then on, next to his mother in Shakespeare's Richard
III. After small movie parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with
audiences and critics in the film “Jacqueline” (1959). George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis
and the Preis der Filmkritik for his role. In 1962 he received the Bambi Award
as the most popular actor.

In the sixties, George got the chance to show that he is
able to do more than playing sappy peasants, through roles in movies such as “Kirmes”,
playing a desperate Wehrmacht deserter, and “Herrenpartie”. More often, though,
he performed in comedies and action-oriented movies which benefited from his
physical presence. He became well-known to a broad audience when, during his
theater tour in Göttingen, Horst Wendlandt persuaded him to play in one of the
Karl May series of films, which he started in 1962 with “The Treasure of Silver
Lake”. It was originally planned to give George the lead role of the farmer son
Fred Engel, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker was hired to play the
role of Old Shatterhand. George performed all stunts himself, even in his lead
role as sheriff in “The Man Called Gringo” in 1965 and “Frontier Hellcat (1964)
as Martin Baumann, Jr. and “The Halfbreed” (1966) as Jeff Brown.

In the 1970s he turned primarily to stage roles and to
television, including the many episodes of ‘Der Komissar’, ‘Tatort’, ‘Derrick’,
and ‘Der Alte’ for which he would become famous. It was not until 1977 that he
was cast in a prominent role again, playing Franz Lang in “Aus Einem Deutschen
Leben”, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höß.

George probably had his greatest popular success in the
eighties on TV: in ‘Tatort’ episodes of the WDR, broadcast from 1981 to 1991,
he portrayed proletarian police officer Horst Schimanski, who eventually became
cult in German TV. In 1984 and 1987 he again won the Bambi Award as the most
popular actor. The series of Schulz & Schulz movies, starting in 1989 and
dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to
show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of the
industry consultant Morlock in the series of the same name, which is rather far
removed from the roughneck charm of senior commissar Schimanski.

Among George's most impressive roles in the nineties were
his appearances in the television movie “Der Sandmann”, in which he portrayed
the alleged serial killer and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and
manipulative intellectual, and in the television movie “Die Bubi-Scholz-Story”,
the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.

Monday, July 22, 2013

This past spring a
number of DVD companies rushed to take advantage of Quentin Tarantino's Oscar
(R) winning Django Unchained, by releasing as much (NTSC) product as they could
tie-in to the spaghetti-Django mythos. The first out of the gate was Timeless's
pair of classy (LP) double bills featuring 'Django Kills Silently' &
'Django's Cut-Price Corpses' and 'A Man Called Django' & 'Django and
Sartana's Showdown in the West'. Couldn't go wrong with those. Next Echo Bridge
let loose a volley of spaghetti collections containing either 4, 8 12 or 20 (LP
and EP) movie packs all in compressed form. Their titles are too numerous to
repeat here. Then the BlueRay juggernaut 25 spaghetti's on a one-sided (EP)
disk (!) entitled Westerns Unchained came forth from Millennium Entertainment.
It contained a fistful of unreleased titles in English. Now we come to the
latest spaghetti bonanza of essential Django movies presented in nifty
double-disk 6 (LP) movie packs from a company called TGG (thegarrgroup). At
first it looks like a great deal, in that it would contain a number of
unreleased (NTSC) titles mixed in with older product. Once you start checking
deeper you realize that the majority of their titles are available elsewhere in
varying degrees of speed. All their films are presented in english with new
superimposed titles that are at times confusing and border on the fraudulent. Now
lets examine these two new collections.

First up we have The Django Collection Volume 1.
(011891522557 ) in LP speed. It includes Edward G. Muller's 'A Man Called
Django' aka 'W Django' (see the above Timeless collection). Sergio Garrone's
'Hanging for Django' is 'No Room to Die' which appears to be new to DVD.Since it's recorded in the LP speed, it would
be better to wait for the Kino-Video blue-ray release that's coming this
August. Next up is Lucio Fulci's 'Brute and the Beast' under the misleading
Dutch VHS title 'Django, the Runner', with their title presented in bright red,
while the actual print has washed out credits [Available from Wild East in SP].
'Django, A Bullet for You' is not the expected retitling of Leon Klimovsy's
'Ballad of a Bounty Hunter', but his 'A Few Dollars for Django' [see Echo
Bridge]. 'Return of Django' is the superimposed translation of the French title
of Osvaldo Civirani's 'Son of Django' used here to fool the consumer [Also
available from WildEast]. Lastly 'A Pistol for Django' is Paolo Solvay's
'Django's Cut-Price Corpses' under the translation of the film's Spanish title
[Again see the Timeless release].

Next we have The Django Collection Volume 2.
(011891522656) in LP speed which is the better of the two. It includes Romolo
Guerrieri's '10,000 Dollars For Django' aka '10,000 Dollars Blood Money' [which
is available from Timeless in the EP speed as '10,000 Dollars For A Massacre'].
'Django Defies Sartana' is not Pasquale Squitieri's 'Django Challenges Sartana'
[Available from Wild East] as one would expect, but Miles Deem's 'Django and
Sartana's Showdown in the West'. It was previously included in the Millenium
B-R collection as 'Django Defies Sartana' [Available from Timeless under its
original title in one of their double bills]. Max Hunter aka Massimo Pupillo's
'Django Kills Silently' stars George Eastman [see Timeless]. 'Django, the
Avenger' is not Ferdinando Baldi's 'Texas Adios', which was called 'The
Avenger', upon its UK release and Django, der Rächer' in Germany, but Sergio
Garrone's 'The Strangers Gundown' (again with a superimposed new title)
[Available from VCI in SP]. Next up is another Garrone title 'Kill Django, Kill
First' aka 'Tequila', starring Jack Stuart which is new to DVD, but was included
in the above mentioned B-R collection. Lastly they have the previously
unreleased Paolo Solvay film 'Django, Adios', starring Brad Harris (probably
from a VHS tape with a new title over top of an optically blurred image). It
has the poorest picture quality of all the above mentioned movies.

Well there you have it. It's nice that the DVD/B-R
manufactures are finally taking notice of us, but it would be great if they
didn't try to take advantage of us. Not since the early days of VHS tapes have
so many of our film's titles been misleadingly retitled and or recorded in the
cheapest speeds as possible.

Dominque Bettenfeld is a French actor who has
appeared in over 25 movies since he first started acting in 1990. Bettenfeld is
well known for performances in “Les Redoutables” (2000), “L'Amour Aux Trousses”
(2004), and “Nui Blanche” (2010). He’s also appeared on stage and in
television.

Bettenfeld was first used by director Jean-Pierre
Jeunet [1953-] in several of his
films and then more recently by Jan Kounen [1964- ].

Bettenfeld has appeared in only one Euro-western
so far in his career that being “Blueberry” (aka “Renegade”) in 2002 playing
the role of Scarecrow.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

The Original 'Django' Franco Nero on His Iconic Character and
the Film's Legacy (Q&A)

The Italian actor who inspired Quentin Tarantino's
"Django Unchained" discusses the role that defined his career and
speculates on who would win if the two Djangos fought.

CAPRI, Italy -- Franco Nero had no inkling that when he
started filming the original Django movie nearly 50 years ago that he’d be
making history. There was no real script, the budget was at first big enough to
finance only a single scene. “When we started, I really wasn’t sure if we’d
ever even finish the film,” Nero says.

Instead, Nero’s interpretation of a brooding, mostly
silent and unflappable cowboy drifter made Sergio Corbucci’s ultra-violent film
a spaghetti Western classic that spawned at least 30 sequels -- Nero reprised
Django in only one of them, 1987’s Django Strikes Again, directed by Nello
Rossati -- and inspired minions of dedicated fans. One of them was director
Quentin Tarantino.

In Tarantino’s film, Django Unchained, which opened
Christmas Day in the U.S. and Canada and will premiere in Europe on Friday in
Rome, Jamie Foxx plays the title role; Nero appears in a cameo.

Nero, 71, has acted in nearly 200 films including the
role of Sir Lancelot in Joshua Logan’s Camelot, Horacio in Tristana from Luis
Bunuel and Gianni Versace in Menahem Golan’s The Versace Murder. He even
provided the voice for Uncle Topolino in Pixar’s Cars 2. But he remains best
known as Django.

Nero was at the Capri, Hollywood Film Festival as part of
a special tribute to Django, featuring a screening of Corbucci’s 1966 classic,
an extended trailer of Django Unchained and the Capri Legends Award, the
festival’s top honor. He spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the sidelines of
the festival.

The Hollywood Reporter: After you finished making Django,
what was the first sign you had that it was something more extraordinary than
you might have guessed?

Franco Nero: I
think it was a few months later, when I was in the U.S. to make Camelot, the
Warner Bros film. I had a print of Django with me, and one day I decided to do
a screening for the crew and some people there. They all said it was such an
original movie, that it was not at all like an American Western. They loved it
so much I had to do three more screenings, and I remember actors like Paul
Newman, Steve McQueen, who were shooting their own films in that area, they all
came. And Terence Young, the film director, saw it three times. That’s when it
started to strike me that the film was something special.

THR: What do you attribute this to, that almost 50 years
later the film is still resonating with people, many of whom weren't alive when
it came out?

Nero: It’s a good
question. I have done many, many interviews, especially in the last year, with
Quentin’s movie. I almost always get asked that question, and I really don’t
know the answer. It’s one of the things that cannot be explained.

THR: Tarantino was only 3 when Django when it first came
out, but it obviously made an impression on him.

Nero: That’s right. During the shooting, he wanted
everyone to see the original Django film.

THR: At what point did you first hear about Tarantino’s
fascination with the film?

Nero: It’s a long
story that goes back almost 15 years. I was doing a movie in Spain, called Talk
of Angels, for Miramax [in 1998]. It’s a story set during the Spanish Civil
War, in 1934, and the actress Penelope Cruz played my daughter. One day, she
had to leave the set to fly to San Sebastian, for the film festival, and when
she came back she said, “You know, Franco, I met this young director named
Quentin Tarantino, and when I told him I was doing this movie with you, he was
crazy about it. He said: ‘Oh! Bring him here, bring him here. I have to meet
him!’” That was the first time I heard of Tarantino. After that, I saw
interviews with Tarantino where he talked about me.

THR: When did you finally meet? And when the idea of a
new film based on Django emerge?

Nero: Well,
several years later he came to Rome for the local premiere of Inglourious
Basterds [in 2009], and he said to the production that he wanted to meet me. We
had lunch in Rome and he told me the story, that he first saw Django when he
was 14, when he was working in a video store. He knew practically all my work,
he recited lines from my movies, and the music from my movies. He knew almost
all of them.

THR: So that’s when you first discussed the movie?

Nero: No, sorry,
no. It didn’t come up until [2011] when I was in Berlin for the festival and I
saw [producer] Harvey Weinstein and he mentioned it to me. He just said, “Oh,
Franco, you’re going to be in Quentin’s new movie.” That was it. I hadn’t heard
anything about it. All of a sudden people started saying to me, “Oh, I hear
you’re going to be in Tarantino’s movie.” But still nothing official until,
finally, around October 2011, a call from Tarantino and he said he was doing
the movie, Django Unchained. He told me the idea for the film, and I said I had
an idea for the script. Do you want to hear it?

THR: Yes, yes, of course.

Nero: My idea is
that Jamie Foxx [who plays Django], through the movie, had a vision of a
horseman dressed in black, coming toward the camera. It haunted him. Until the
very end, then there’s the horseman -- that is me -- and the camera pulls back
and there’s a young black boy, and a black mother, who looks up and says
“That’s your father,” and I would give him some advice, like "Fight for
freedom," or something like that. Quentin said he would think about it,
but in the end he didn’t go for the idea. He said I should be an Italian
character with a cameo role. I was hesitant, but he said, “Trust me!” So I did,
we shook hands, and I loved working with him.

THR:What are the
biggest similarities and differences between your version of Django and Foxx’s
version?

Nero: Well, both
are men of few words; both are very skilled with the guns. They are men of
action. My Django was seeking revenge for his wife, Mercedes, but Jamie Foxx’s
version’s wife is still alive, and he succeeds to reunite with her. I betray my
partner, but Jamie Foxx is a much better partner to his former slave owner
[played by Christoph Waltz].

THR: Could the two Djangos have become friends if had
they met?

Nero: Well, I
became friends with Jamie Foxx in real life. But I’m not sure the Djangos would
have gotten along.

THR: In that case, if they were enemies, which Django
would win a fight between them? You’re a pretty good shot in the original.

Nero: [Laughs]
Well, I don’t know. In the new movie, this Django knows how to shoot as well.
But, well, I think I would have won. The difference is that in the new movie,
his partner is the one who teaches him how to shoot. But in the original, I
already knew.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.